Patrick Quirke’s barrister has described Mary Lowry’s evidence about his client’s presence at the farm on the day he went missing as “devious poison”.
Closing speeches are continuing in the trial of the 50-year-old farmer from Breanshamore in who denies murdering his love rival Bobby Ryan.
Mary Lowry was in a relationship with Bobby Ryan at the time he went missing in June 2011 and the jury heard she had an affair with the accused.
It is the prosecution’s case that Patrick Quirke murdered him to try and get back with his ex-lover – a woman described by defence barrister Bernard Condon as a “dangerous and unreliable witness” in his closing speech.
He accused her of delivering her evidence in a “manipulative way” and urged the jurors to look at the quality of it and not the quantity.
He asked if the evidence proved his client to be the bad person they’re trying to make him out to be and warned them to be “very, very” careful of Ms. Lowry and her attempts to down him.
He also accused her of fabricating things when it suits her.
The prosecution accepts there’s no smoking gun in this case and no blood-stained clothing. All the evidence is circumstantial and Mr. Condon warned the jury that wasn’t an excuse to take shortcuts.
